For engineers, grad students, and technical builders who want to ship real production systems, not prototypes. In Cohort 2610 the Advanced pod builds the backbone that connects all four Standard Track agents into one unified Dental Operating System: multi-tenant Supabase schema, clinical knowledge RAG, PMS integrations, auth, observability, and the deploy pipeline. Same 12 weeks, deeper stack, paid teaching role after graduation.
Both tracks build real AI Agents for real dental clinics in Cohort 2610. The difference is what you already know coming in, and how deep the stack goes. In this cohort, Standard pods ship the user-facing agents. Advanced pods ship the production backbone those agents plug into.
If you're new to AI, workflows, and shipping products.
If you already code and want to ship the backbone, not just a workflow.
6 core technical modules across 12 weeks. Every module ships working code into the Dental OS backbone that the Standard pods' agents plug into. No hand-waving on architecture. No lecture series. Every two weeks you ship a module into production and the Standard pods start using it.
Scope the end-to-end architecture of the Dental OS with Trisha and the Valixon team. Set up the LangGraph monorepo, decide the agent-to-agent protocol, and get a hello-world agent running against Supabase. By end of Week 2, Standard pods can call your API.
uv, langgraph, pydantic, Supabase CLI, GitHub ActionsDesign and ship the multi-tenant Supabase schema that every Dental OS agent reads and writes. Row-level security per clinic, auth with Supabase Auth, RBAC for front desk vs clinician vs owner roles, HIPAA-aware patterns on PII fields.
Build the vector-based knowledge layer over clinical protocols, insurance payer rules, CDT dental procedure codes, and per-clinic SOPs. Hybrid search (vector + keyword), chunking strategies for medical documents, freshness handling for insurance rule changes.
Build the custom MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that let any Dental OS agent read from the three major dental practice management systems: Open Dental, Dentrix, Eaglesoft. Normalize the schemas, handle the quirks, expose one clean interface to the agents.
Ship a real eval harness with golden datasets per agent, automated scoring, model routing (Haiku for classify, Sonnet for generate), regression checks on every deploy. Full observability stack: Logfire traces, per-request cost tracking, alerting on prod errors.
pytest regression suiteRate limiting, auth hardening, prompt injection defense, PII redaction, backup + restore, SOC2-lite checklist. First real clinic onboarded onto the full Dental OS stack. Full production readiness review before Demo Day on January 10, 2027.
Not tutorials. Not demos. Three real artifacts you can point future employers, clients, and investors at. All public (within client NDA constraints) and all referenceable.
Live backend running against a real Valixon-network clinic. Multi-tenant schema, clinical knowledge RAG, PMS integrations, deployed with real cost tracking and real error handling. Deployed by you, maintained by you.
Public GitHub repo with your golden dataset, scoring code, reproducible benchmarks for the agents on the Dental OS, plus the custom MCP servers for Open Dental, Dentrix, Eaglesoft. Demonstrable proof you understand production quality.
Blog-post length architecture document explaining the Dental OS design decisions, trade-offs, and lessons learned. Publishable on your personal site, co-published on the MergeWorks engineering blog.
The curriculum and the build are the core. These are the compounding perks that pay dividends well after January 10, 2027.
Advanced fellows who complete Cohort 2610 are first in line for one of the three paid teaching intern slots on the next cohort (10 hrs/week, stipend plus Vesting Units in the Fellowship product pool). The Advanced Track is designed to feed the next cohort's teaching bench.
Because Advanced fellows ship production code earlier, Co-Builder Vesting Units typically activate by Week 8-9 instead of Week 10-12 for Standard. Same revenue share model, same vesting gates, just a faster path to Vesting Units on the Dental OS backbone.
Standard track runs on pre-recorded modules + teaching interns. Advanced is Trisha, live, every Saturday for 90 minutes, plus Wednesday office hours. Direct access to the founder's time, every week, for 12 weeks.
Standing intros into the Founders Board community (business owners at $2M+ revenue led by Roland Frasier, Ryan Deiss, Richard Lindner), MergeWorks's portfolio operators, Valixon's clinic network, and the broader MW acquisition pipeline. Access continues indefinitely.
The goal of this cohort is not to study AI Agents. The goal is to ship one and get a real dental practice using it. The first pod or solo Advanced fellow to deploy to a live Valixon-network clinic receives a public MergeWorks First to Deploy Award: a dedicated spotlight on the MW platform, named Co-Builder spots on the agent going forward, a published case study on the Grow By Buying podcast network, and a signed letter from the MW managing partners.
Pulled directly from end-of-cohort feedback forms. Fellows across Cohorts 2602, 2604, and 2606 shipped eight production agents including HireWise, DealGuard, the MergeWorks LOI Builder (216 funding strategies), the Fundraising Agent (against 6 live LOIs), and the M&A Deal Sourcing Engine (49-node n8n workflow still running inside MergeWorks).
"I liked how open-ended the work was with just enough guidance. For the Co-Builder track, I want to continue working on my project and see it through since I enjoyed building it and working with the client. I also potentially want to be considered for a longer-term role at MergeWorks."
"What I loved most was how hands-on the program was. I wasn't just learning about agents conceptually. I was actually building workflows, debugging them, changing parts of the stack when something wasn't working well, and seeing how those decisions affected a real product."
"In Pod 6's LOI Agent project, I worked on the n8n workflow, connecting input validation, Claude generation, document output, and logging. I'm interested in Track C because I'd like to keep building practical AI tools with a team."
"I particularly enjoyed working with my specific team. All of us brought together different strengths, but above all we had good communication, which I believe to be the cornerstone of any good team."
"Even while building the M&A deal sourcing agent in the first cohort, I wanted to build upon the final product and actually push the product into production and onboard clients. Now actually having the chance to do it, I would love to be a part of it."
"Rated the fellowship 10/10. I got to make the architecture and agent myself, from scratch. The hands-on building experience was unlike any program I've been part of."
You don't leave with a résumé line. Top Advanced performers continue as paid Co-Builders on the Dental OS backbone, with a documented path to spin-out founder on the Dental OS as a standalone product.
~8 seats. We interview roughly 30-40 applicants. We accept applicants who ship demonstrable code and articulate why they want to build production AI systems specifically. Take the application seriously.
There's a $500 enrollment deposit that is fully refunded when you complete the program (see Completion section below for exact criteria). The deposit covers your Anthropic + OpenAI credits during the cohort and filters for commitment. The Advanced Track additionally comes with a guaranteed paid teaching role on the next cohort (Cohort 2612) for fellows who complete, so Advanced is the only track with explicit paid work baked in post-graduation.
Yes. The Advanced pod builds the Dental OS backbone against a real Valixon-network clinic. The backbone is shared by all the Standard track pods, so your work has four downstream users (the Standard agents) plus the clinic itself.
No. We teach the framework (LangGraph primarily). You need to be comfortable writing production code in Python or TypeScript, comfortable with git, comfortable reading docs, and comfortable with Supabase or at least SQL. If those are true, you'll be fine.
Same structure, faster path. Because Advanced fellows ship production code earlier, Co-Builder Vesting Units typically activate by Week 8-9 instead of Week 10-12. Same revenue share model, same vesting gates, just faster to real units. Advanced fellows also get a guaranteed paid teaching role on the next cohort, which Standard does not.
No. Pick one. If you're on the fence, err toward Standard. If you're clearly overqualified for Standard based on past builds, apply to Advanced.
~8 seats. We interview ~30-40 applicants. We accept applicants who ship demonstrable code and who articulate why they want to build production AI systems specifically. Take the application seriously.
15-minute conversation covering: a project you've shipped, a technical decision you've made recently, and one open-ended AI architecture question. No LeetCode. We're looking for engineering judgment, not memorized answers.
Advanced Track is intense. If you can't sustain 12-15 hrs/week, you'll be moved to Standard Track (if space allows) or asked to withdraw. This isn't punishment. It's protection for the pod that needs you shipping.
Yes. Advanced sessions are working sessions, not lectures. Recordings exist as backup but you're expected live. Consistent absence is grounds for removal.
The $500 enrollment deposit is fully refunded when you complete the program. These are the exact criteria written into the fellowship contract you sign at acceptance. We define this up front so there is no ambiguity. We are not trying to keep your deposit.
Meet all 7 criteria above. $500 deposit refunded within 14 business days of Demo Day via original payment method. First-in-line for one of the three paid teaching intern slots on Cohort 2612. Confirmation email sent from trisha@mergeworks.org.
Withdrawal is welcome and non-punitive. If life circumstances change and you need to leave the program, tell us early. Your work stays with MergeWorks per the confidentiality and IP terms in the fellowship contract. The deposit is not returned in the case of early withdrawal. Exceptions to any of the above are at the discretion of MW leadership and documented in writing. Serious medical, family, or personal emergencies are handled case-by-case. Contact trisha@mergeworks.org as early as you can.
Webinar Friday, October 16 · 2:00 PM EST. Applications due Saturday, October 18 · 11:59 PM EST. ~8 seats. Cohort 2610 starts Saturday, October 24, 2026.
Apply for Advanced Track · Cohort 2610$500 refundable enrollment deposit on acceptance · fully refunded on program completion.
Not technical enough yet? Try the Standard Track on the n8n + Claude stack instead.